Prince Olumuyiwa Adejobi, the Nigeria Police's Public Relations Officer, has maintained that officers are statutorily empowered to forcefully enter a building or any place if they are convinced an offence is being committed.

The police spokesman disclosed this when replying to a netizen (@basquiatshow) on X, who called his attention to a video showing men dressed in police uniforms scaling a fence.

In the video posted by Somto Okonkwo, two officers are spotted trying to gain entrance into a building. However, the occupiers refused to open the gate for them, insisting they had not committed any offence.

After a brief but heated argument, one of the officers, who hid his face behind a balaclava and wrapped a scarf around his neck, scaled the fence to enter the building.

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Quoting Okonkwo's post, another X user, popularly known on the platform as the Great Oracle (@AbdulMahmud01), questioned whether the officer's action was consistent with the police operations.

"How's this consistent with the Force Operations @PoliceNG? Officers turned up masked, without a warrant, opened live rounds and climbed (actually trespassed) into a property - and this is standard operation, @Princemoye1? An armed citizen would have shot this officer," Great Oracle probed.

Calling Adejobi's attention to the post, @basquiatshow said, "This could have been anybody, please sir @Princemoye1 how do we differentiate Police from Kidnappers like this."

Adejobi says police officers allowed to scale fence

In response, the Force spokesman said officers are within their right to enter a building through the fence to enforce the law.

However, he condemned the officer's attire, noting that police personnel should not wear masks or tie headgear while on duty.

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"Let's clarify an issue here. The police have the power to break into any house or place where they are reasonably convinced an offence is being committed. That is understandable. But I am not too ok with their dressing and appearance.

"It is improper dressing. Policemen are not allowed to wear masks or tie headgear. These are two issues we need to iron out. What is the offence of the people to have warranted breaking in, and why this dressing? he wrote.

Adejobi said the video has been sent to Police spokespersons across the country to identify the officers to investigate the event in the clip properly.

"I wish I knew the location so that we could direct these questions to the men involved. However, I have shared the video with d PPROs to locate the men. We need to investigate the scene captured in the video. Thanks," he added.